---
id: edge-zigbee
area: edge
level: 3
title: "Artefact — Hand-built Zigbee routers and lighting"
claim: "Two routers built by hand to extend an indoor mesh · feeding nine lighting zones with presence sensing and voice control."
confidence: running
period: "2020–"
tech: [ESP32, Zigbee, Relay, PIR, Radar, Home Assistant]
metrics: [{label: "hand-built Zigbee routers", value: 2}, {label: "lighting zones", value: 9}]
artefacts: []
public: true
last_verified: 2026-10-26
tags: [edge, zigbee, lighting, artefact]
---

# Artefact — Hand-built Zigbee routers and lighting

**Status: stub.** The router build and a zone map land in Phase 7.

## What the artefact is

Two Zigbee routers on ESP32 hardware, built because the commercial mesh did not cover the house and a repeater would have been a black box. Behind them, nine lighting zones: custom presence sensors with PIR and radar for the bathroom and a child's bedroom, a central light controller with a readout and a potentiometer, and a three-button remote with a dial — click on, double click off, dial for level.

## What it proves

Mesh networking understood at the level where you can add a node instead of buying one, and lighting built for how a house is used rather than for a product category.

## When it is delivered

Phase 7. Source: evidence notes section 1.